Two days after he was booked for sharing an edited video of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday filed a complaint with the Madhya Pradesh Police, seeking registration of an FIR against Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union minister Smriti Irani for "sharing a fake video" of former AICC president Rahul Gandhi during the 2019 Lok Sabha poll campaign.
Singh submitted a written complaint accusing Shivraj Singh of sharing an edited video of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi. He said if the police filed an FIR against him, similar action should be taken against the chief minister too. The Congress leader warned of moving to court if the police failed to act upon his complaint.
In his complaint, Digvijay Singh has cited a tempered video of May 16, 2019 which was shared by Shivraj Singh Chouhan. In the video, the chief minister is shown taunting at Rahul Gandhi with a barb,” you have, albeit in speech, changed the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh for not fulfilling the promise of waiving off loans of farmers. You are a great man and do big tasks in a jiffy.”
The edited video was a small part of Rahul Gandhi’s speech which was manipulated in such a way that it sounded as though Rahul Gandhi had forgotten the name of the chief minister. In reality, Rahul Gandhi did mention the then chief minister Kamal Nath but the video was edited to make it appear as though he was referring to Chhattisgarh's chief minister Bhupesh Baghel as MP’s chief minister.
Two days ago, the crime branch had filed an FIR on BJP leaders’ complaint against Digvijay Singh for sharing a tempered video which sounded as though chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is promoting liquor consumption. It was a nine-second edited version of the chief minister’s two-minute speech which was recorded in January 2020 when he had launched a campaign against the then chief minister Kamal Nath’s liquor policy.
On Monday, Digvijaya Singh, MP Congress' social media coordinator Avinash Kadbe and 10 others were booked under IPC sections 500 (defamation), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory), 505 (2) (public mischief) and 465 (forgery) on a complaint lodged by BJP leaders.
Bhopal superintendent of police Sai Krishna said he would proceed on Digvijay Singh ’s complaint only after seeking advice of legal experts.
Around 11 am, Digvijay Singh along with his son Jaivardhan Singh and supporters reached the crime branch office. In his brief meeting with the SP, he urged to suspend action on the FIR against him till investigation is complete.
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